Lee James Nestor
Computer Engineer, Mathematician
Design Portfolio
Figure 1: NeRF Rendering of HVAC System Figure 2: CAD Model of a Mining Robot Figure 3: Recreation of XMB Home Screen Figure 4: Particle Simulation of bodies about a black
hole
About me
I’m an engineer and mathematician whose passions range from Computer
Architectures to Relativistic Physics. I have experience with embedded systems
such as Microcontrollers, Single Board Computers, and FPGAs. I have worked
with a wide plethora of programming languages such as C, C++, Python, Matlab,
and more. I have also done work with mathematical modeling, numerical system
simulation and analysis.
Engineering Work and Designs
Autonomous Photogrammetric
Data Collection and Analyzation
Problem
Structural Damage or Environmental Hazard
making the area unsafe for human
investigation
Solution
Navigation using conventional Simultaneous
Localization and Mapping Techniques
Photogrammetric Data Processing with AI,
using Neural Radiance Fields or (NeRF)
combined with COLMAP (Structure-from-
Motion and Multi-View Stereo REconstruction)
Analyzation of the generated model using
simple Finite Element Analysis (FEA) for
Structural Integrity
Source
https://github.com/colmap/colmap
https://github.com/NVlabs/instant-ngp
Figure 5: NeRF Rendering Text on a Coke-a-
Cola Can
Figure 6: NeRF Rendering reflective surface on a Coke-a-Cola
Can
Figure 7: Matlab display of an STL Model
Figure 8: NeRF rendering of an HVAC System
Figure 9: FEA of a cube with pressure applied Figure 10: COLMap Program with generated
camera positions and angles
Autonomous Damage and
Structure Scanning Drone
Problem
Structural Damage or Environmental Hazard
making the area unsafe for human investigation
Solution
Development and design of a quadcopter drone
Navigation using an embedded system featuring a
Raspberry Pi 3b+ SBC and a Mateksys F405-VTOL
working together with Ardupilot firmware
Data collection with an on-board camera and
installed LiDAR for positional sensing
Implemented network for data transmission back
to a base computer for processing and manual
drone control
Base program for receiving this data and
presenting it to the user
Source
https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot
Figure 11: Picture of the flight controller and connected motors taken with the
on board camera
Figure 12: Complete prototype drone
Figure 13: Block Diagram of the Hardware structure
Figure 14: Block diagram the data processing
system
Figure 16: User Interface
Figure 15: Ardupilot autopilot route for around an
University building
The University of Akron NASA
Robotics Team Software
Problem
To construct a robot to autonomously navigate an
arena simulating the surface of the moon and
proceed to dig soil and deposit to construct a
berm
Solution
Development of a wireless and robust
communications network for controlling the robot
Development of an embedded system, here a
Jetson Nano, to interface with the wireless
controller and the electrical components of the
robot
Analysis of the design requirements to properly
create the software to work within
Research and development into autonomous
systems and mapping techniques using Robotic
Operating System or ROS
Source
https://github.com/UA-NASA-Robotics
https://github.com/ros/ros
Figure 17: CAD Rendering of UA NASA Robotics Mining Team
2023-2024 Robot, Software written by Software Team
Figure 18: Team members
carrying the robot for testing
Figure 19: Planned routing for navigating the arena
Figure 20: CAD Rendering of UA
NASA Robotics Mining Team 2022-
2023 Robot, software written by
Lee Nestor
Figure 21: Jetson Nano SBC
Figure 22: Robotic Operating System used for
governing autonomy
The University of Akron NASA
Robotics Team Software Head
Lead
Problem
Managing and coordination of a team of 20+
people while also engaging them and properly
utilizing their time
Solution
Regular stand-up meetings for coordination and
re-alignment of goals and development processes
Team meetings for group organization and
presentation of current status
Development of extensive documentation and
employment of software engineering techniques
Using github and setting up a system for team
members to be kept aware of the current projects
and their potential difficulty
Source
https://github.com/UA-NASA-Robotics
https://github.com/orgs/UA-NASA-
Robotics/projects?query=is%3Aopen
Figure 23: Electrical/Software
Members Soldering Figure 24: Software Member
working on SBC Figure 25: Software Team photo
Figure 26: Github project organization
Figure 27: Team
Members
transporting the
Robot
Figure 28: University of Akron NASA Robotics Mining Team Github PAge
Custom Playstation 3 Inspired
Webpage
Problem
There is a need for a homepage for web browsing
that has quick access for a wide variety of links
while also presenting relevant information
Solution
Utilizing HTML, CSS and JS to design an
implement a web page that can incorporate all of
these requirements
Use the Playstation 3 home screen as inspiration
for a way to organize and present different links
Allow the icons to expand with user input such as
a mouse hover
Source
https://github.com/LeeJamesNestorAkron/Playst
ation3StartPage
Figure 29: Screenshot of the startpage, written in HTML, CSS, and JS
Figure 30: Weather data pulled from the internet
Figure 31: Original home
screen the design is based off
of
Figure 32: Icon hovered over
with mouse cursor presents
clickable links
Figure 33: Time, Data, and Weather data presented
Schwarzschild Metric Based
Black Hole Simulation
Problem
A lack of understanding of general relativistic effects
around a black hole, or an object whose Schwarzschild
Radius is outside its physical body
Solution
Develop and design a numerical simulation to solve
and display a particle affected by a black hole
Derive and understand Schwarzschild geodesics in
order to create a set of differential equations to solve
numerically
Implement an 4th order Runge-Kutta numerical solver
to evaluate the system of equations
Display and render the particles using OpenGL
rendering
Source
https://github.com/LeeJamesNestorAkron/schwarzchil
dBlackhole
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzschild_geodesics
Figure 34: Example simulation of large mass particles
orbiting a black hole
Figure 35: Second example of large mass particles orbiting a
black hole
Figure 36: Python Implementation of a Runge-Kutta 4th Solver
Figure 37: Python Implementation of Schwarzschild
geodesic equations
Contact
Lee James Nestor
leenestor.akron@gmail.com
330-696-6327
https://LeeJamesNestorAkron.github.io/ Figure 38: Jean-Pierre Luminet’s Simulation of a Black Hole
1978